June 15 - Albi, Castlenau de Montmiral, Cordes sur Ciel, St Cirq Lapopie

This was another sunny hot day. At 3pm it was 92.

First stop to complete Albi was the Toulouse Lautrec museum. Very modern museum with an excellent collection of his works. Spent two hours there.

Then off to Castelnau de Montmiral. Only an hour drive and the countryside is beautiful. This town is a member of TMBVF. The Most Beautiful Villages of France. This is a small bastide town (surrounded by ancient walls). It is always amazing how clean and beautiful these small towns are. We strolled around the town and had lunch at one of the two restaurants on the main place. We both had salads today, trying to save room for dinner at a recommended restaurant in St. Cirq Lapopie.

We left Castelnau at 1:30 and drove through beautiful countryside to the town of Cordes-sur-Ciel. You need to park in the lower town and walk to the upper town, no cars allowed. We sure got our workout today. Straight up hill on cobblestone streets up, up, up at least a kilometer. We sure got our workout today! This area's homes are different in style from Provence with many timbered homes from the 14th-15th centuries. We walked the streets admiring the gorgeous views over the valley and browsing some shops before heading back downhill.

We arrived in St.-Cirq-Lapopie at 5pm where we have our hotel reservations for the night. What a drive, through valleys and green hills and finally limestone cliffs. This is another town perched high on a hill with breathtaking scenery, lots of shops and restaurants. We had an excellent meal of local cuisine (Karen had duck tenderloins!)

We are headed to Pech Merle tomorrow, our first prehistoric cave.

Au Revoir

June 14 - Albi - Old Bridge from Castle

June 14 - Carcassonne Old City

June 14 - Entry to Carcassonne Medieval City

Sending photos seems to be a problem if you send too many. Hopefully this is not a duplicate.

La Cite, as the fortress is referred to, is a fortress and castle as you would see in a fairy tale book.

June 14 - Carcassonne Lunch Photo

Just one of food. Imagine, this was to be a small salad before the main plat of Sea Bream. This contained lettuce, lardons (thick bacon pieces), foie gras, sort of prosciutto and tomatoes.

We will be coming home heavier.

June 14 Carcassonne & Albi

This morning brought beautiful sunshine and after an early morning breakfast in Toulouse we were on our way to Carcassonne, a fortified city established in the 10th century.
Of course we made some wrong turns getting out of Toulouse even with our Garmin, the maps and Bridget, our GPS voice that came with our car. We eventually figured it out and arrived at 9:30 to this fairytale city. It was reminiscent of Mont St Michel with all the tourists and tourist shops to go with it. We loved walking around this place imaging what it was like to live here in the 10th century. We toured the castle and had a great 2 hr lunch relaxing in the garden of a very nice Restaurant, Auberge des Musees. Michael had a sea bream and Karen had Poulet with mushroom sauce, delicious.
We left Carcassonne about 2:00 and drove through the Parc Naturel Regional forest climbing up the mountain through winding roads. The scenery was gorgeous and it was amazing to see people hiking and biking up there. We made it to Albi about 4pm, checked in, dropped our bags and headed out to see St Cecile Cathedral, the world's largest brick cathedral. It was very impressive and the inside is totally covered in painted murals. We then walked around the old town, down to the river Tarn and through all the shopping streets, then stopped for a drink and dinner. Even after a big lunch we had walked off that lunch and were ready for some more great French food by 7:00pm. It was very warm today, hot even in the sun. It's 9:30 and still light out here.
Another great day. We have already lost track of time.
Pictures will follow.

June 13 - Toulouse Pictures

A small selection of Toulouse photos.
Capitol Square
Pont Neuf

Dinner at Place Wilson, Veal Marengo & Les Noissettes of Poulet

June 13 - Toulouse

Up at 8:00, good breakfast at our hotel, Albert 1, a block from Capitol Sq. A few showers while eating breakfast but then it stopped as we headed out and the day was perfect, mix of clouds and sun and temps in the 70's.

We did the Michelin walking tour, taking in all the sites, including another stop at St Sernin's Church to see inside this 11C cathedral then walking to Capitol Sq for ice cream and a visit to the Capitollum building. It's a French holiday plus normal Monday shops aren't usually open so it's fairly quiet in the square. We walked the city for 4 hrs and then took a 1.5 hour cruise on the River Garonne. It was great weather for cruising the river and Midi Canal with it's tree lined shores.

We finished our walk of the city with a stop in Place Wilson for a light dinner at a Brasserie and spent 3 hrs there talking to a fellow from Mexico City who was there on business for a Veterinary conference.

It was a great start to our France trip.

We're off to Carcassonne tomorrow morning.

June 12 - Sunday - Arrival

We arrived finally, after all of our flights suffered delays, the worst being from DFW which was two hours delayed. Good to have extra connecting time built in. The weather is great, sunny and comfortable and the forecast is for the same for the next few days.

After a few driving mistakes we got to the hotel. Great location on rue Rivals, just a short walk to everything.

Started our sightseeing about 4:30pm at St. Sernin church, then walked the streets, then Capitol Square, impressive, and then hunger started calling. Since we eat little on flight days, and the delays kept us from having our planned breakfast at CDG, we had not eaten much since Saturday afternoon at the airport Friday's. Found a cute little place on rue Taur just between Sernin and Capitol and we're back at the hotel at 7:15 to begin unpacking and sorting into one bag what we'd need for the next few days of hotels so we could leave one bag in the car.

No pictures to post yet.

Map of Dordogne

This is the Dordogne area detail.  The Lot and Languedoc regions are southeast of Dordogne.  We will be spending most of our time in the 'Perigord Noir' section when we do day trips from Sarlat.